This application discloses a linear methacrylic ABC triblock polymer, having at least one hydrophobic block and one hydrophilic block, in which the composition of each of the three blocks is different.
A variety of ABC triblock polymers, in which the chemical constitution of each polymeric block differs from the other two, have been described in the literature. Generally, they have been prepared by anionic polymerization. The ABC triblock polymers of the art have been found to be useful as elastomeric materials, for example in design of automobile bumpers. Some of these ABC triblock polymers contain a hydrophilic block but, of these, none are prepared exclusively with methacrylates.
Int. Application No. PCT/Fr90/00514, published on Jan. 24, 1991 as WO 91/00874 (same as European Patent Application EP 408429, Jan. 16, 1991), discloses triblock ABC copolymers wherein A and C can be an acrylic, vinyl aromatic, methacrylic, or maleimide block, where B is an acrylic, vinyl aromatic or methacrylic block, and where at least one of A and C is selected from a different class from that of the B block. Thus, all three blocks cannot be methacrylic.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,417,034, which is incorporated herein by reference, covers the GTP process of preparing block polymers generically; the composition claim is to "living" (silyl ketene acetal-ended) polymers, not the "quenched" block polymers of this invention.
D. Y. Sogah, W. R. Hertler, O. W. Webster, G. M. Cohen, Macromolecules 1987, 20, 1473 discloses an ABC triblock polymer (without a hydrophilic block), poly(methyl methacrylate-b-butyl methacrylate-b-allyl methacrylate).
G. Reiss, M. Schlienger, S. Marti, J. Macromol. Sci.-Phys. 1980, B17, 355 discloses a ternary blend of two homopolymers, poly(styrene) and poly(methyl methacrylate) and an ABC triblock polymer, poly(styrene-b-isoprene-b-methyl methacrylate).
G. S. Fielding-Russell, P. S. Pillai, Polymer 1977, 18, 859 discloses an ABC triblock polymer with a hydrophilic block, poly(styrene-b-butadiene-b-2-vinyl pyridine hydrochloride).
H. Ohnuma; T. Shimohira; H. Tanisugi; I. Kudose; T. Kotaka Bull. Inst. Chem. Res., Kyoto Univ. 1988, 66 (3), 283-296. Morphological studies of ABC triblock butadiene-styrene-4-vinylpyridine and quaternized polymers.
R. Comeau et al., Nucl. Med. Biol. 1990, 321-329 describe "Conjugation of a Monoclonal Antibody with a DTPA Modified Random Copolymer of Hydroxyethyl Methylacrylate and Methyl Methacrylate".